“Master, your pancakes are so good… you must be a reincarnation of Wu Dalang!”
Night had deepened, and in front of a street-side pancake stall, two young men waited eagerly for their food to come off the griddle. The rather scholarly Martial Alliance Leader Long Aotian was expounding on his own erudition and reflections. They had already eaten one round and found it delicious — this was their second visit.
The stall owner, frying pancakes, had no idea what the boy meant and didn’t respond, but the little monk beside him was quick to play along.
“What’s a Wu Dalang?”
“My dad says he’s the man who makes the best pancakes in the world.”
“Your dad must have been hungry when he ate that shop’s pancakes.”
“Heh heh, maybe so.”
The two of them had, of course, come out looking to make trouble for Li Yanfeng, the “Monkey King” under the Wheel-Turning King’s banner. But with the night market still bustling, they’d searched around for a while and started to get restless, feeling that doing bad deeds was really better suited to deep night. Such was the trouble with starting over in a new place.
At that moment, signal flares shot up into the night sky.
The little monk’s ears twitched, and almost in unison with Long Aotian, he turned to look toward the street along the Qinhuai River not far away.
“Something’s happened.”
“Master, what’s over there?”
The pancake maker glanced over. “Over there… that’d be toward the Gold Tower, I think. That’s the liveliest spot around. Negotiations probably fell through, and there’s a fight again. You two shouldn’t go over there, at your age.”
“Mm-hm, Master, hurry up and finish frying.”
A moment later, they grabbed their pancakes and took off running.
Long Aotian, running out in front, had eyes calm on the surface but brimming with excitement underneath, while the little monk trailing behind him ran with his mouth hanging open, delight written all over his face. In his past travels through the Jin region, though he’d followed a master who treated him wonderfully and taught him a body of skills, he’d lost his parents young, and his master often threw him into dangerous situations to temper him — it could hardly be called fun. Most of the time he was tense and on edge, getting beaten black and blue, secretly crying to himself.
It was only after arriving in Jiangning and meeting this formidable elder brother that, running around together every day, he truly began to feel the joy of having real skills and getting to join in on the excitement. He thought to himself that maybe this was exactly why his master had sent him out — to make friends and go through experiences like this. His master really did have profound Zen wisdom and deep foresight, hahaha.
With such thoughts in mind, the two of them tore off toward the commotion.
…
Chaos was spreading inside and outside the Gold Tower.
On the street outside the building, Yan Yunzhi, still not sure what had happened, nearly got knocked to the ground by the surging crowd. Fortunately she reacted in time, running to the roadside and bracing herself against a wall, watching the situation unfold.
The first few figures to vault over the compound wall moved with extraordinary lightness — one of them was likely “Cold Crow” Chen Juefang under the Wheel-Turning King’s command. Judging by the lightness skill these men displayed, her own modest skills were nowhere close to matching them.
Someone in the street was shouting orders for the Undying Guard to intercept people, though what exactly had triggered such a sudden clash inside that compound remained unclear. Across her field of view, vendors near and far were pushing their carts away in a hurry; beggars, passersby, and wandering martial artists who’d come to watch the excitement were scattering hastily into the distance. Along the street, blade-wielding members of the Undying Guard or the Resentment Society came out of shops, while shopkeepers and their assistants scrambled to bar their doors — no one wanted to get dragged into this kind of chaos if they could help it.
Warning flares had already gone up into the sky; any of the Wheel-Turning King’s men who spotted the flares would likely converge on this spot in large numbers.
Yan Yunzhi stood in a dim spot by the roadside and took a deep breath to steady her thoughts.
She could tell that what lay before her wasn’t a large-scale clash between evenly matched forces. The first man to flee had thrown thunderclap fire bombs into the crowd, clearly meaning to stir up confusion and widen the disturbance. But with several hundred bystanders and wandering martial artists on the street, and well over a hundred people already inside the Gold Tower’s compound, once the initial chaos was brought under control, neither the Wheel-Turning King nor the Fairness Party could realistically hold so many people accountable.
As long as she avoided being swept up in the initial chaos, she should, in theory, be safe.
However, she was currently also being hunted by Shi Baofeng’s people, with a wanted portrait circulating. If the surrounding streets were sealed off and people’s travel permits checked, her situation could quickly turn dire.
With that thought, she picked out a stretch of roadside left dim by poor lighting and began moving silently toward one end of the long street. People were running past on all sides of her; over at the Gold Tower, more martial artists were climbing over the compound wall one after another, and others were charging out through the main gate.
Yan Yunzhi suddenly realized that, amid this chaos of several hundred people, she was hardly the only one worried about an unclear identity and unwilling to be questioned.
These past several days her mood had been dark and heavy, training every day, thinking only of killing Li Yanfeng, the source of the rumor, or Long Aotian, the one who had started it all, in revenge. Now, caught up in something like this, watching everyone run about in a panic, she found herself — for reasons she couldn’t quite explain — laughing bitterly and helplessly in the dark.
Just then, on the compound wall over there, a figure charged up onto the top of the wall like a peal of thunder, a club whirling in hand, knocking down several wandering fighters who were trying to leap over the wall. A furious roar rang out from that figure: “I am the Holy Sect’s Guardian, ‘Monkey King’ Li Yanfeng! No one leaves this street today! All followers of the Great Bright Sect — seal off everyone here—”
The voice rolled thunderously down both ends of the long street, commanding and utterly dominant.
Among the crowd of onlookers scattering along the street, someone wasn’t impressed and sneered under his breath: “Some ‘Monkey King,’ what nonsense…” and kept walking without breaking stride.
Li Yanfeng’s gaze snapped over. His figure raced along the top of the wall, then suddenly leapt down onto the street. His long staff swept out in a flurry of strikes, the shadow of the club whistling through the air, and a swath of the crowd rushing that way was sent sprawling. Someone in the crowd, still defiant, charged forward and was knocked straight back by the staff; two more charged out and were likewise knocked down. Li Yanfeng stood there gripping his club, its tip planted on the ground, and for a moment no one dared charge that way again.
In that brief interval, another figure leapt up onto the wall, this one holding a broadsword, and joined the “Monkey King” in calling out.
“I am ‘Heaven Blade’ Tan Zheng! Several assassins have just struck at Envoy Liu Guangshi and are attempting to flee. Innocent bystanders, please stand against the wall and do not cause an uproar, lest you fall into these villains’ scheme. Once we’ve finished our search, we will see you all safely on your way!”
Tan Zheng, “Heaven Blade,” had long been a famous name. His voice now carried an internal power that was steady, deep, and seemingly bottomless, likewise rolling far down the long street.
If the “Monkey King” Li Yanfeng’s earlier appearance, ordering everyone flatly not to leave, had shown off his own overbearing dominance, then “Heaven Blade” Tan Zheng’s words, laying out the full context clearly, made the Great Bright Sect’s authority in this matter seem all the more deeply rooted, backed by that powerful internal force.
And following “Heaven Blade’s” appearance, several more voices rang out one after another.
“I am Jin Yongsheng of the Baofeng Hall, acting on orders — you will all be kept safe.”
“I serve under the ‘Heaven King,’ Guo Shengtian…”
“I am ‘Edgeless Sword’ Wei He — I ask you all not to fall for the villains’ scheme…”
“I am ‘Flower Fist’ Chen Bian…”
At this point, smoke was scattering across the street, and one great figure after another appeared atop the Gold Tower’s wall or rooftop. In that instant, the several hundred people up and down the street, inside and outside the Gold Tower, all felt their spirits quail.
In these recent days, the wandering martial artists who had come to Jiangning had wanted to be part of exactly the kind of heart-stirring heroic moments found in stories and storytellers’ tales. Some had even hoped they themselves might take part, becoming participants in or witnesses to some grand and stirring event.
And now, at this very moment, with heroes and great powers from every faction converging, the impact and pressure of this chaotic scene grew all the more real and overwhelming. The “Monkey King” Li Yanfeng, single-handed with his club, had all but sealed off half the street, and other heroes stood forth one after another. The will of the Wheel-Turning King, the Equality King, the Heaven King, along with Dai Mengwei, Liu Guangshi, and various other factions, had all descended upon this place. Some of the wandering martial artists not caught up in the fighting understood that, by tomorrow, tonight’s spectacle at the Gold Tower would already be spreading through every wandering-fighter circle across the city.
Some people, steadying themselves amid the smoke, began heading to the roadside to wait rather than running about aimlessly. At the same time, naturally, a small number kept dashing around looking for a way out. Someone laughed loudly and even called out his own name as he charged at Li Yanfeng, only to end up beaten black and blue.
Part of the crowd was beginning to scatter to either side of the street. At one stretch of the roadside, another thunderclap bomb was thrown — the work of an assassin hidden among the crowd, trying once more to stir up chaos. But at that very moment, “Heaven Blade” Tan Zheng let out a fierce roar from atop the high wall and charged down.
This master of the blade dove like a fierce tiger into the smoke where the bomb had burst. A series of sharp clangs rang out, and Tan Zheng dragged someone out by force, standing at this end of the street and flinging the blood-soaked body onto the ground, shouting:
“A real man acts openly and honorably! Anyone who can survive my blade today — why shouldn’t I let them go!”
At the other end of the street, “Monkey King” Li Yanfeng struck another man down with his club, standing there magnificent and unyielding, dominating the scene.
The overwhelming presence of these masters struck terror into everyone’s hearts, but of course there were still some people on the long street who hadn’t managed to get out of the way in time and were still darting about. Yan Yunzhi noticed a man and woman armed with steel whips running through the street; when they charged toward one side, Li Yanfeng, seeming to recognize them, raised his club and pointed it their way, and the two immediately turned back, while a handful of Undying Guard and Resentment Society members who had come out from the compound closed in around them.
A tall, burly man carrying a thick iron ruler, his shoulder soaked in blood, came walking toward the two of them from the direction of the Gold Tower’s gate, speaking as he approached: “Don’t resist uselessly — I’ll see that you come to no harm!” His words rang out firm and weighty, as though each carried tremendous authority.
Yan Yunzhi, of course, had no way of knowing that this man was Meng Zhutao, the one who commanded the Resentment Society under the Wheel-Turning King. After he had killed the monk Tan Ji, shaken and unsettled, his four junior martial siblings had immediately launched a sneak attack on him. The second senior brother, Yu Bin, had moved fastest, his steel whip crashing down onto Meng Zhutao’s shoulder — in that instant Meng Zhutao had barely been able to hold back, and had sent the man flying with full force.
But the other three junior siblings hadn’t fared any better afterward. Among them, the fourth brother, who had married the youngest junior sister Ling Chu, had been subdued, and the youngest brother had grabbed Ling Chu and fled toward the outer street amid the chaos. But their martial arts and lightness skills weren’t strong enough — with everyone watching them, how could they possibly get away?
Meng Zhutao walked toward them, step by step, speaking as he came.
“Listen well — what’s between you and me is a private grudge. These assassins struck amid the chaos; that’s not your fault. Junior Brother Four has been subdued by me and isn’t badly hurt. As long as you two don’t cause any more trouble, I’ll see that you leave safely today!”
His authority was heavy and deep, and as his words closed the distance along with his footsteps, with the Undying Guard closing in around them as well, it truly gave the sense that resistance was futile.
Then the woman holding a single whip let out a cry — “Ah—!”
She said, “Senior Brother, you told us you debated philosophy with Father, you said it was you who carried forward the Ling family’s whip technique to greater heights — don’t you know the Ling family’s whip technique means never bending, only breaking—”
Standing among the crowd by the roadside, Yan Yunzhi had no idea what grievances lay between these people, but hearing those words, something stirred and moved within her all the same.
Meng Zhutao’s footsteps slowed to a brief stop. He stood there, looking at the two of them for a moment, then turned to the side and said, “…Bring the fishing net.”
The two of them seemed not to have expected such words from Meng Zhutao, and froze for a moment in shock. Then, all at once, they turned and charged toward “Monkey King” Li Yanfeng, who stood not far off.
Li Yanfeng’s club whistled through the air, spinning in a full circle.
“Please hold back as much as you can — don’t hurt them,” Meng Zhutao called over.
“I know how to handle it,” Li Yanfeng said. The street where he stood was wide enough, and seeing the two of them charging at him side by side, he was struck with amusement despite himself, tapping his club-tip. “Split up and run, at least!”
The two of them charged in: “Out of the way—”
Li Yanfeng shook his head helplessly. “These two really are out of their minds…”
The night wind blew through, sweeping the smoke stirred up by the thunderclap bombs across the long street. Near and far, small-scale disturbances and skirmishes continued in waves. Some people ran off into the distance, clashing with those guarding the street corners, fleeing farther still; some tried to climb into nearby shops or dash into dark alleys; some ran toward the Qinhuai River near the Gold Tower — but someone seemed to be shouting: “General Gao is coming… seal off the river channel…”
The killing of Liu Guangshi’s envoy was no small matter within the city. The Wheel-Turning King’s people were doing everything they could to salvage the situation, suppress the scene, and recover their authority — but among the crowd, how many people were there, really, who had no wish to see the Wheel-Turning King or Liu Guangshi come out of this unscathed?
Yan Yunzhi did her best to think through all of this calmly.
Another thunderclap bomb went flying. Amid the crowd, a figure lunged at the fighting knot formed by Li Yanfeng and the whip-wielding senior siblings, a blade slashing down at Li Yanfeng. This was likely another assassin who had been hiding among the crowd, seizing the opportunity now — after trading two blows with Li Yanfeng, he meant to flee swiftly into the distance.
At the other end of the street, Chen Juefang, who had earlier chased the first assassin off into the distance, was now rushing back with a roar.
That first assassin had extraordinary lightness skill and formidable combat ability; after landing his strike, he’d mocked his pursuer, dragging Chen Juefang through a running battle among the nearby buildings before somehow vanishing entirely — so much so that Chen Juefang was now shouting from a rooftop, “Seal off the river!” before calling out to some group of Undying Guard members he couldn’t quite place: “Surround this area for me—”
…
Signal flares kept going up, one after another.
You Hongzhuo watched all of this from the darkness between the buildings.
With hero after hero from the wandering-fighter world stepping forward to act, and with more of the Wheel-Turning King’s men arriving, the fighting up and down the long street hadn’t yet died down, but it had eased somewhat. Under normal circumstances, it would probably take about the time it takes for half a stick of incense to burn before those running wild and vaulting over walls were brought under control.
But that was only under normal circumstances.
The area around the Gold Tower was complicated, infiltrated by every faction. Right now the Wheel-Turning King’s people had made a public spectacle of themselves — and who had orchestrated that spectacle, and what the other factions might make of it, no one could say. It wasn’t impossible that some faction might right now bring out a group of men to charge in and openly declare, I’m the one who took out Gu Anhe, I just don’t like Liu Guangshi — and then a much bigger brawl might break out, who could say.
Those without backing scrambled through the streets below, and You Hongzhuo could sense that there were more people, like himself, watching all of this unfold from the darkness.
He was watching Chen Juefang.
As for the identity of that first assassin, he had little interest for now. This trip, aside from Fourth Brother Kuang Wenbo turning out to be a pleasant surprise, “Heaven Blade” Tan Zheng was someone he would inevitably have to challenge sooner or later — but the one he had been determined to kill these past two days was this “Cold Crow” Chen Juefang.
Miao Zheng, on the Wheel-Turning King’s side, had been implicated because of Liang Siyi and had been forced to defect to Wei Xuwen. Wei Xuwen had then set a trap trying to capture An Xifu; when that failed, Miao Zheng had before long ended up back in Chen Juefang’s hands and been killed by him… the relationships tangled up in this were intriguing, though of course You Hongzhuo had no particular wish to dig deeper.
But according to An Xifu, Liang Siyi herself had some issues that needed working through.
How was You Hongzhuo supposed to work through anything? After thinking it over for a long while, he’d simply decided to come here and take out Chen Juefang himself.
From what he’d observed earlier, his own lightness skill couldn’t match the other man’s, and the present situation was too complicated — perhaps not the best moment for an assassination… Most of all, he couldn’t read the intentions of everyone else on this street. Purely in terms of odds of success, it would be better to wait until tonight, when the other side was busy directing the manhunt and a bit more worn down…
As he mulled this over, he watched Chen Juefang, up ahead on the rooftop of a wooden building, issuing orders before racing back at high speed.
And at that very moment, something at the corner of his eye caught his attention — a silhouette slowly advancing through the darkness on the second floor over there.
Chen Juefang cracked his long whip, using the eave of a rooftop for leverage, and swung his body down through the air.
You Hongzhuo shook his head.
But the figure lurking in the darkness across the way had already surged forward to meet Chen Juefang, a long sword sweeping across the sky, reflecting the firelight.
— Peacock King’s Seven Unfolding Feathers!
You Hongzhuo dropped into a crouch, exploded with force, and shot forward like a whirlwind toward that spot!
Liang Siyi had spent most of her life on battlefields; unlike her sworn brothers and sisters, she had never been sent out to wander the martial world, raiding and looting to supplement the army’s coffers. Because of this, she didn’t fully grasp that someone like Chen Juefang, in an environment like this, would still be extremely on guard — perhaps at the very peak of vigilance at this exact moment.
Her long sword swept out, slashing at Chen Juefang, and the next instant a violent clash of steel on steel rang out in midair, sparks flying in every direction. Chen Juefang caught her blade with the long saber at his side, and with his other hand pulling on his whip, his body pivoted in midair, slammed against the wooden building’s wall, then kicked off with both legs to launch himself at Liang Siyi, who was still falling through the air toward the street.
In that same instant, You Hongzhuo’s figure was already closing in at full speed from nearby, roof tiles on the eaves shattering explosively in his wake.
And on the other side of this building, “Soul-Breaker Spear” Qiu Changying, who happened to be patrolling nearby, was almost instinctively drawn in, racing across the rooftops.
Above the long street.
Chen Juefang’s long saber came slashing down at Liang Siyi.
You Hongzhuo’s figure burst into the air above them, the blade in his hand blooming like a thunderbolt as he swung it at Chen Juefang’s head.
From one side, Qiu Changying’s spear tip thrust out.
You Hongzhuo, still in midair, swept his left arm upward, striking the spear’s shaft, which sent his own body dropping; his blade clashed against Chen Juefang’s in that same instant, and he swung it through the air in a wide arc, trading two more blows with the saber and the spear…
The various skirmishes large and small continued along the street. All four figures seemed to leap out over the long street at once, a series of clangs ringing out in midair as the figures crashed down and rolled in different directions. Two people who hadn’t managed to dodge in time were knocked to the ground by the famous “Cold Crow” Chen Juefang; a handcart that hadn’t been packed away in time was smashed apart by one of the unidentified figures, sending debris and water splashing across the roadside.
Many eyes were drawn to this scene.
Liang Siyi and You Hongzhuo rolled several times on the ground, dispersing the force of the fall, and got to their feet. Chen Juefang, hit in midair by what was nearly You Hongzhuo’s most vicious strike, had barely avoided losing his head; his hasty block had left him in a sorry state as well, but crashing into the two pedestrians had absorbed most of the force.
Qiu Changying, having thrust twice in midair, hadn’t had it nearly as rough, and landed with relative grace, simply rolling once on the ground before standing back up, calling out: “I am ‘Soul-Breaker Spear’ Qiu Changying! Who are you two, sneaking about like this — dare you give your names!”
You Hongzhuo stepped back a pace; his shoulder had been pierced by the man’s spear, and having exerted so much force in midair, he’d landed hardest of the three, crashing through the handcart. He steadied his breathing now, saying quietly, “If you’re planning to run, don’t go toward the river — they’ve got fishing nets set up there.”
Liang Siyi came to stand beside him. “I’ll fight. You get out while you can.”
You Hongzhuo had already charged at Chen Juefang.
With life and death on the line, he could no longer hold anything back…
…
At the very moment the four masters dropped down out of the air over that stretch of the long street, Yan Yunzhi, who was trying to make her escape, caught sight of Jin Yongsheng, chief steward of the Baofeng Hall, not far ahead on the road.
The thunderclap bomb thrown earlier by the assassin who’d tried to flee under the Monkey King’s club had left the surrounding air thick with smoke; many people along the roadside were coughing from the fumes, and some were fleeing farther off. The fleeing assassin had been intercepted by several members of the Undying Guard up ahead and was locked in combat with them; of the man and woman with the steel whips, the man had already been knocked down by Li Yanfeng and had a fishing net thrown over him, while the woman was still fighting fiercely amid her own shouts. Li Yanfeng, holding his club one-handed, casually knocked her whip aside a few times, giving Meng Zhutao some face by toying with the woman a little.
Some of the Undying Guard and Resentment Society members were shouting orders at the crowd along the roadside not to move, but in truth the orders were somewhat chaotic — some telling people to stand, others shouting for everyone to crouch down — and amid the coughing, small skirmishes were breaking out here and there.
Yan Yunzhi had already witnessed Li Yanfeng’s formidable strength; in a scene this thick with smoke, she might well get one chance to strike, but her odds of success were slim, and she wanted to use this opportunity to slip away instead. A member of the Undying Guard blocked her path ahead, swinging a blade at her; Yan Yunzhi closed the distance in a single step and, with a strike that was fierce yet as economical as she could make it, knocked him to the ground.
She took a few more steps forward. At that moment, she heard someone fall to the ground amid a fight at the other end of the street in the night sky; she didn’t turn to look, but as she took her next step, she caught sight of Jin Yongsheng.
This senior steward of the Baofeng Hall’s “Ren” division stood with one hand behind his back, watching her with a faintly deep, knowing smile. She understood at once that it was already too late to turn away as if nothing were wrong.
Yan Yunzhi’s hands went to the hilt of her sword.
Jin Yongsheng spoke. “I didn’t expect to find Miss Yan here as well. It’s chaos out here — why don’t you come back with this old man.”
Yan Yunzhi shook her head.
Her figure slipped backward, vanishing into the smoke.
Jin Yongsheng sighed. Then he surged forward with a rush of speed.
…
As she retreated into the smoke, Yan Yunzhi felt a moment of uncertainty — she didn’t know whether she should throw everything she had into striking down Li Yanfeng nearby, or try to maneuver around this Steward Jin and attempt to escape instead.
That thought lasted only an instant; just as she was about to draw her sword and charge out, a voice sounded beside her ear: “Well, this is going to be trouble…”
The voice was calm and gentle. As it spoke, a hand settled on her shoulder.
At her side, someone threw open the cloak covering him.
The ones who appeared behind and beside her were none other than the two brothers who had saved her that day — Han Ping and Han Yun. Big Ping now stood behind her, while Little Yun had already thrown open his cloak beside her.
Jin Yongsheng came rushing in.
What awaited him was a punch of the most ferocious, unrelenting force imaginable.